Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding legal contract between you and GatheredFolk LLC, an Oregon limited liability company ("GatheredFolk," "we," "us"), governing your use of the GatheredFolk apps, the website at gatheredfolk.co, and all related features (the "Platform").

By creating an account or otherwise using the Platform, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you list or sell anything through the Marketplace, or host a Knit-Along or Crochet-Along, you also agree to our Marketplace Seller Agreement. If you don't agree, please don't use the Platform.

Section "Dispute Resolution" below contains a binding arbitration agreement and class-action waiver. It affects your legal rights, including your right to sue in court — please read it.

GatheredFolk provides an online venue that lets members connect, list items, and transact with one another. When you buy or sell through the Marketplace, you're entering into a contract directly with the other member — GatheredFolk is not the buyer, seller, agent, or a party to that contract.

• We don't manufacture, inspect, store, or take ownership of anything sold through the Marketplace, and we don't verify or endorse any listing — everything in a listing (description, photos, price, condition) comes entirely from the seller.
• As between you and GatheredFolk, the risk of a transaction — non-delivery, damage, defect, misdescription — rests with the buyer and seller, not us.
• Any purchase-protection, dispute, refund, or payout process we operate (see "Marketplace purchases, disputes & refunds" below) is a discretionary service, not insurance or a guarantee, and doesn't make us a party to your transaction.

• The Gathering (our community space) — you must be at least 13 years old. There's no minimum age to create an account or use the rest of the Platform (Studio, Purl); an account with a birthdate under 13 on file simply can't access The Gathering, on any platform, until that's corrected.
• Marketplace (buying and selling) — you must be at least 18, or the age of majority where you live if that's higher, and able to form a binding contract. We check the date of birth on your account before letting a purchase go through, and block it if you're under 18 or haven't given us one yet. For sellers, it's independently backed up too: you can't receive a payout without completing Stripe Connect's own identity verification, which confirms your date of birth and legal capacity to contract.
• By using the Platform, you represent that your registration information is accurate, that you're not barred from using the Platform under any applicable law, and that you're not subject to U.S. export or sanctions restrictions.

You can register with email and password, or sign in with Apple or Google. Signing in with Apple or Google doesn't hand us a date of birth the way our own signup form does — if you sign in that way and later try to buy something on the Marketplace or an Along, we'll ask you to add your date of birth in Settings first, per the age requirement above.

• You're responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential and for all activity on your account — tell us right away if you suspect unauthorized use.
• You may not create an account using someone else's identity, choose a username that's offensive or infringing, maintain multiple accounts to evade a suspension, transfer your account, or let anyone else use it.
• We may suspend, restrict, or terminate an account at our discretion, including for suspected violation of these Terms or fraud, or to protect the Platform or its members.

You own what you create — charts, patterns, photos, posts, and everything else you make on GatheredFolk. We don't claim ownership of it.

• You grant us a license to host, store, display, and distribute your content, solely as needed to operate the Platform and to show content you choose to make public (like a Gathering post or a Marketplace listing). That license ends when you delete the content or your account, aside from reasonable backups and Marketplace transaction records we're required to keep.
• You're responsible for your content — you represent that you own the rights to it and that it doesn't infringe anyone else's rights or violate the law.
• We may remove content that we believe violates these Terms or could expose GatheredFolk or our members to harm.
• If you send us feedback or ideas, we're free to use them without any obligation to you.

Purl uses a third-party AI model (currently OpenAI) to generate knitting- and crochet-related responses, chart descriptions, and pattern exports. Anything you send to Purl — messages, chart images, pattern text — is sent to that provider to generate a response.

Purl's output can be incomplete or wrong. You use it at your own risk and are responsible for independently checking anything you rely on — yarn quantities, gauge, sizing (especially for anything worn by children), or any other safety-relevant detail. Purl doesn't provide professional advice, and you won't use it to generate unlawful or abusive content.

The Marketplace lets members buy and sell digital patterns and physical goods, including used or leftover yarn and supplies. It's rolled out gradually and may not be available on every account, region, or platform.

• Digital items (like PDF patterns) deliver instantly with no shipping. Physical items ship via a tracked carrier, arranged by the seller.
• Before listing anything for sale, sellers must separately accept our Marketplace Seller Agreement, which covers seller-specific responsibilities in detail.
• Prohibited: counterfeit or infringing goods, items you don't have the legal right to sell, patterns or designs you didn't create or aren't authorized to resell, recalled or hazardous items, and anything else prohibited by law.
• Stuffed and plush toys and other items designed or marketed for use by children are not permitted on the Marketplace at this time, regardless of whether they're handmade. We may enable this category in the future, with additional requirements.

This section describes the only process through which GatheredFolk will involve itself in a transaction dispute, and the limits of that involvement.

• Payment and holding of funds — payments are processed by Stripe. For physical items, funds are collected at checkout and held; they're not released to the seller immediately.
• Shipping deadline — sellers must ship physical items with carrier-verified tracking within 7 days of the order. If they don't, the order is automatically canceled and refunded.
• Review window — once a carrier confirms delivery, buyers have 72 hours to report a qualifying problem: the item never arrived, arrived damaged, was the wrong item, or was significantly not as described. If no dispute is opened in that window, the sale is final and the seller is paid.
• Digital items (patterns, and Along access) are final sale. Completing checkout means you intended to buy it, and unlike a physical item, a digital good can't be "returned" — so we don't offer refunds for a change of mind or for buying the wrong item, regardless of whether you've downloaded or opened it yet. If a technical problem on our end keeps you from accessing something you paid for, contact us and we'll fix your access first, and refund you only if we can't. We'll also honor a refund where required by law.
• Sellers and Hosts are typically paid for a digital item or Along purchase right away, not held. If that sale is later reversed through no fault of the buyer's own choice — for example, a bank chargeback, or a refund we grant for a technical problem on our end — before the buyer has downloaded or accessed what they bought, we may reverse that payout. Once they've accessed it, the seller or Host keeps the payout regardless of any later refund.
• Where a case can't be resolved automatically from tracking and evidence, we may review it and decide, at our discretion, whether to release the payout, refund the buyer, or take no action — our decision is final. This process is the buyer's exclusive remedy through the Platform; for a physical item, any refund is funded from the seller's held funds, not our own.
• Fulfilling a physical order requires us to share the buyer's name and shipping address with the seller. The seller alone is responsible for how that information is used and protected once received, and may use it only to complete that order.
• If you open a chargeback with your bank, please use this process first. Abusive or bad-faith chargebacks are a breach of these Terms — this doesn't affect your statutory right to dispute a charge with your card issuer, it just means abusing that right has consequences here.

An Along is a structured, guided project within The Gathering, led by a Host, made up of a series of sections — each with its own written breakdown and a walkthrough video from the Host — plus a discussion space for participants. Where an Along has a price, purchasing it unlocks its sections, videos, and discussion for that Host's project.

• An Along purchase works like a Marketplace transaction between you and the Host, not a direct sale by GatheredFolk — the same venue/facilitator terms described above for the Marketplace apply here. The Host, not GatheredFolk, is responsible for the pattern, materials guidance, videos, and other content they provide.
• Hosts are subject to the same eligibility, conduct, and intellectual-property obligations as Marketplace sellers throughout these Terms and the Marketplace Seller Agreement, and are paid the same way — through Stripe Connect, subject to the same platform fee described below. GatheredFolk may select or approve who's able to host an Along, and may set additional requirements for hosting one.
• An Along purchase is a digital-content purchase — see "Marketplace purchases, disputes & refunds" above for how digital items are treated (final sale, no refunds for a change of mind regardless of whether you've watched anything yet, except where required by law or for a technical problem on our end) and the same 18+ age requirement that applies to buying and selling anywhere else on the Marketplace.
• If a Host takes their Along off sale, or GatheredFolk removes it from new purchases, that doesn't affect access for members who already purchased it — you keep what you already bought.
• Video and other content within an Along is provided by the Host and hosted using third-party infrastructure (currently Cloudflare Stream); the same disclaimers that apply to Marketplace listings and community content generally — that GatheredFolk doesn't independently verify accuracy, safety, or quality — apply to Along content as well.

• GatheredFolk charges sellers a Marketplace platform fee of 10% of the item price on completed sales. Along Hosts are charged that same 10% by default, though GatheredFolk may agree to a different rate for a specific Along with its Host — a Host can see the exact rate for their own Along from its editing page. Stripe's own payment-processing fees are separate and are the seller's or Host's responsibility.
• To sell or host, you must onboard to Stripe Connect and accept Stripe's own Connected Account Agreement — Stripe processes payments, holds and disburses funds, and handles payouts.
• Sellers and Hosts set their own prices. Except where we're required by law to collect and remit sales tax as a marketplace facilitator, sellers and Hosts are responsible for determining and remitting any taxes on their own sales, and for their own income taxes.
• We may change fees at any time on reasonable notice.

You agree not to:

• Violate any law, regulation, or third party's rights.
• Post false, misleading, infringing, harassing, or unlawful content.
• List prohibited items or misrepresent an item's condition, authenticity, or safety.
• Infringe any copyright, trademark, or other intellectual-property right, including reselling a pattern or design you didn't create or aren't licensed to resell.
• Circumvent fees or the dispute process, including by arranging to complete a Marketplace-originated sale outside the Platform.
• Commit fraud, upload malware, scrape or harvest data, or bypass any access control.
• Impersonate anyone, harass or threaten another member, or disrupt the Platform.

We may investigate and take action we deem appropriate, including removing content, suspending accounts, withholding funds pending investigation, and cooperating with law enforcement.

GatheredFolk, the GatheredFolk and Purl names and marks, and the Platform's software and design are owned by us. Every seller of a digital pattern must affirmatively confirm, at the time of listing, that they created it or are otherwise authorized to sell it.

If you believe content on the Platform infringes your copyright, send a notice to gatheredfolk@gmail.com including your signature, identification of the copyrighted work and the infringing material, your contact information, and a good-faith statement that the use isn't authorized. We'll remove material we determine is infringing, and will terminate accounts of repeat infringers.

The Platform integrates with third-party services including Stripe, OpenAI, Shippo (shipment tracking), Cloudflare (Along video hosting), PostHog (product analytics), Resend (transactional email), Expo (push notifications), Apple, Google, and Amazon Web Services. Your use of those services is governed by their own terms — we're not responsible for them and make no warranty about them.

The Platform and everything on it — listings, items, content — are provided "as is," without warranty of any kind, to the fullest extent the law allows. We don't warrant that the Platform will be uninterrupted or error-free, and we make no warranty about any listing, seller, or buyer.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, GatheredFolk isn't liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, and our total liability for any claim relating to the Platform is capped at the greater of the platform fees you paid us in the preceding 3 months, or $100. For a claim about a specific transaction, our liability (if any) is capped at the fee we actually received on that transaction.

Some jurisdictions don't allow these kinds of limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

We don't screen members beyond what's described in these Terms. Exercise your own judgment in any interaction with another member, especially in person.

Because GatheredFolk is a venue and not a party to transactions, you release GatheredFolk from claims arising out of a transaction, a dispute with another member, or another member's actions.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to defend and indemnify GatheredFolk against claims arising from your content, your use of the Platform, any transaction you're party to, your violation of these Terms or the law, or your infringement of someone else's rights.

• You can stop using the Platform anytime and request account deletion — this can't be undone. Once deleted, you lose access to everything tied to your account on GatheredFolk: your profile, your purchase and sales history, messages, and anything else you'd normally reach by logging in. Stripe keeps its own separate transaction records under its own privacy policy regardless of what happens to yours. If you've sold something or hosted an Along someone else purchased, we keep that specific transaction on record — as described in "Your content" above and our Privacy Policy — so the buyer keeps what they paid for and our financial records stay accurate; it's just no longer tied to an account you can log into.
• We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your account, remove content, or withhold funds at our discretion, including for a violation of these Terms, suspected fraud, or risk to members or the Platform.
• We may change, limit, or discontinue any part of the Platform, including the Marketplace or any category within it, at any time. We're not liable for the effect this has on you, including any effect on your income — though we'll try to give sellers advance notice where reasonably possible.

Before starting arbitration, you agree to contact us and try to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days. Except as described below, any dispute arising from these Terms or the Platform will be resolved exclusively by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court.

• You and GatheredFolk each waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class, collective, or representative proceeding.
• Either of us may still bring an individual claim in small-claims court, or seek injunctive relief in court for intellectual-property infringement or unauthorized access to the Platform.
• You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing us within 30 days of first accepting these Terms.
• For a claim of $10,000 or less, you choose whether the arbitration hearing happens in person, by phone, or on the papers. GatheredFolk will pay all AAA filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees for claims under $10,000, and won't seek to recover its own attorneys' fees unless the arbitrator finds your claim was brought in bad faith.
• If the class/representative-action waiver above is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim (and only that claim) will proceed in court instead of arbitration; every other claim, and the rest of this arbitration agreement, remains in effect.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Oregon and applicable U.S. federal law. Any dispute not subject to arbitration will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Deschutes County, Oregon.

We may modify these Terms at any time. If we make material changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date and take reasonable steps to notify you. Continuing to use the Platform after changes take effect means you accept the revised Terms.

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable or invalid by a court or arbitrator, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the rest of these Terms will remain in full force and effect.

Questions about these Terms? Reach us at gatheredfolk@gmail.com.

GatheredFolk LLC, 20513 SE Dorset Pl # 2, Bend, OR 97702.